from The Free Library.
A distracted 17-year-old Westlake Village resident drove a pickup truck into five weekend bicyclists Saturday morning, killing one and sending three others to the hospital, one in critical condition, officials said.
Los Angeles Los Angeles. County sheriff's deputies said Jordan Lampos was driving the truck that hit and killed Mehran Delavari, a 35-year-old West Hills father of two small children.
Delavari was sitting on a Lindero Canyon Road sidewalk changing a flat tire on a bicycle at 8:40 a.m. when he was hit and dragged 19 feet, deputies said.
``(Lampos) struck all five bicyclists,'' said Los Angeles County sheriff's Detective Robert Evans There are several well-known people named Robert Evans, including:
* Robert Evans (astronomer) (born 1937) an amateur astronomer who holds the record for visual discoveries of supernovae
*
. ``He wasn't paying attention ". The rider who was sitting on the curb was killed instantly.''
Also hit was Zachary Winner, 34, of Sherman Oaks who was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center UCLA Medical Center is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. It is rated as one of the top three hospitals in the United States and is the top hospital on the West Coast according to US News & World Report.
..... He was listed in critical condition with head and chest injuries as well as multiple broken bones
Two others were transported in stable condition to Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks.
Brian Zrehigan, 40, of Sherman Oaks suffered a broken back, and George Ricciardi, 43, of Calabasas had a broken left arm, according to Evans and a nursing supervisor. Ricciardi was later released, the nursing supervisor said.
A fifth bicyclist, Stanislav Ionov, 40, of Calabasas was treated at the scene for a minor cut to his left leg and released. That section of Lindero Canyon Road, with two vehicle lanes and an 11-foot-wide bike lane in each direction, is a popular spot for biking enthusiasts.
The site also draws walkers and joggers from throughout the region because of its scenic location near the Santa Monica Mountains.
Lampos was not arrested and was released to the custody of his parents, Evans said. He said the case remains under investigation.
``He was pretty shaken up,'' Evans said. ``He's a kid. He realizes he ran over someone. But he was able to talk and tell us how the accident occurred.''
Driving home from a workout at a local health club, Lampos had just made a right turn off Lakeview Canyon Road onto the southbound lane of Lindero Canyon Road at 8:40 a.m. when something in the northbound lane distracted him, Evans said.
Traveling an estimated 30 mph in a 45-mph zone, Lampos' white 1998 Chevrolet pickup truck veered onto the sidewalk and hit the bicyclists before coming to rest about 100 feet away, said Evans.
``(Lampos) wasn't looking so it wasn't a safe speed to be going,'' Evans said.
Sheriff's deputies initially had difficulty identifying four of the victims because none of them was carrying identification and Ionov knew only the first name of the deceased, who leaves a wife, Ilanit, 30, a 2-year-old daughter and a 4-month-old son, police and family members said.
Reyman and Mehrnaz Delavary of West Hills expressed immense sorrow and disbelief that their cousin was dead.
``Right now, I don't know Don't know what to feel,'' said Reyman Delavary, 36, who grew up with Mehran Delavari in Iran. ``It hasn't sunk in yet.''
The couple said they last saw Mehran and Ilanit Delavari dancing up a storm at the wedding of a family friend in Studio City last summer.
``You just loved looking at them,'' said Mehrnaz. ``They were so much in love, dancing together.''
MehranDelavari fled his homeland shortly after the 1979 Iranian revolution, spending time in England and Salt Lake City before arriving in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. He had worked for the past three years as a researcher and distributor of new drugs for Amgen, the Thousand Oaks biotechnology giant.
The couple married five years ago. Besides bicycling, Mehran Delavari enjoyed snow skiing and swimming, Reyman Delavary said.
``He was very much a sports person,'' Delavary added.
Ionov had only recently joined the informal bicycle club, which takes weekend excursions.
Although all five bicyclists were wearing safety helmets, Evans said they are not the highest of quality.
``They are designed for falling down on the ground, not getting hit by a car,'' he said.
Traffic was rerouted for hours as investigators reconstructed the crash scene from the five mangled bicycles and other accessories scattered around the blanketed body.
Three ambulances, twoparamedic squads, two Los Angeles County fire engine units and five sheriff's cruisers responded to the call.
The bicyclists had met earlier at the El Camino shopping center, near the Ventura Freeway-Valley Circle Boulevard interchange, and were heading west toward an unknown destination.
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